


The エクス-Files

by professorplum221



Category: Death Note (Anime & Manga), The X-Files
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Gun Violence, Humor, Mystery, Non-Explicit Sex, Non-Graphic Violence, POV Third Person Limited, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:02:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24085549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/professorplum221/pseuds/professorplum221
Summary: Raye Penber was busy, so L called the next FBI agent on his contact list
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Comments: 5
Kudos: 14





	1. Chapter 1

It took effort for Light Yagami to suppress his smile as the chaos on the hijacked bus played out just according to plan. Keeping his eyes on the doomed hijacker at the front, he slipped a note to the girl beside him, telling her not to worry since he knew how to handle the situation. Most importantly, the note was written in simple language and a large, neat hand, to ensure that its real intended recipient—the foreigner behind him—wouldn't have any trouble reading over his shoulder.

Sure enough, the man interjected immediately, insisting that it was too dangerous for Light to attempt to restrain the hijacker himself, and assuring him that it was okay for them to talk quietly, since the noise of the bus would drown them out. At least, Light was able to figure out that he  _ meant _ something along those lines—his Japanese was absolutely awful. Light guessed that the entirety of the man's experience with the language before this week had been watching a bit of anime and binge-listening to "Learn Japanese For Beginners" cassettes on the plane over. It had clearly been the right choice to dumb down that note as much as possible.

"Do you have anything that will prove to me that you aren't the hijacker's accomplice?" Light asked, making sure he spoke slowly.

"Accomplice?" Light's unlucky date repeated. Light had almost forgotten she was there.

"It's pretty common practice," he replied. "They make you think there's only one guy, but actually he has an accomplice in the back to keep watch and come to the rescue if something happens."

Light waited as the man thought things over, no doubt taking some extra time to parse Light's explanation before weighing the pros and cons of letting his suspect find out about his real identity. The moment seemed to last an eternity, and Light almost began to worry that this unexpectedly uneducated foreigner would throw off his intricately detailed scheme.

But of course, his plan was perfect. The man soon realized he had no choice but to hand Light his FBI badge, revealing the most dangerous information for the owner of a Death Note to have.

Alongside a clear picture of his face, his name: Fox Mulder.

* * *

"—and then the hijacker started screaming about a monster and firing his gun at thin air! When he ran out of bullets, he sprinted out of the bus and into the street and got hit by a car! I wish I could have stayed to investigate more, but I had to get out of there before the cops showed up."

"Well, I'm glad you're okay," Dana Scully responded to her partner's absurd story—a position she found herself in pretty often. "I thought they told us there wasn't much gun crime in Japan."

"Yeah, it's a lot harder for criminals to get guns here than back home. I was surprised too. But that's not the craziest part, Scully!" Mulder continued as he paced the floor of his hotel room. "I was  _ just about _ to report that there seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary about Light Yagami, but the hijacker didn't see the monster until right after he touched a piece of paper that Light dropped! There's something going on with that kid."

Scully rolled her eyes. "Or the criminal was on drugs and hallucinating, Mulder. Which sounds more likely to you—that, or the police chief's teenage son can summon invisible monsters with a magic piece of paper?"

"But you have to admit there  _ is _ something supernatural about the Kira case, right?" Mulder spread his arms wide as if to gesture toward a metaphorical mountain of evidence.

"I don't know. I'm willing to listen to your theories on this one, but I still think a lot of it could be attributed to mass hysteria—the idea that they could be the target of some vengeful death god driving criminals who already have mental health problems into such a panicked state that it affects them physically. Hasn't there already been at least one confirmed case of a prisoner leaving a suicide note expressing fear that Kira was coming for him?"

"Well yeah, but immediately after writing the note, that guy  _ died of a heart attack _ , just like all the other victims! You can't intentionally commit suicide by heart attack. And how do you explain what happened with Lind L. Tailor?"

"That whole event was orchestrated by L, right? Is it possible he could have been intentionally stoking the fires of this worldwide Kira obsession? How do we know we can trust him?"

Mulder's eyes went wide with shock. "How do we know we can trust  _ L _ ? You're suspicious of the greatest detective in the world?"

Scully chuckled. "Right. I forgot that your new motto was 'trust no one— _ except _ the mysterious weirdo who won't show anyone his face'."

It had barely been a week since the famously reclusive detective had become a colleague of theirs, but once he did, Mulder had immediately revealed himself to be one of his biggest fans. Scully reflected on the day that happened, and on how much their lives had changed since.

* * *

"Mulder, do you happen to know why Skinner greeted me in horribly pronounced Japanese when I walked in here this morning?" she asked upon entering their basement office on what turned out to be one of her last normal workdays in Washington.

Mulder looked up from his task of packing up boxes in the corner. "Oh, you didn't get the memo? We're taking a little trip, Scully! L wants us on the Kira case!"

"The Kira case?" Scully raised an eyebrow as she surveyed the office, made even messier than usual by Mulder's re-organizing. "You mean that conspiracy theory about someone in Japan causing heart attacks with his mind?"

"I know, isn't it exciting?" Mulder enthused while haphazardly gathering more files into boxes. "We'll get to learn about a whole new culture, a whole new language—"

"—a whole new set of myths and folktales for you to fixate on . . ."

"—and maybe we'll even get to meet L! Well, probably not in person, but you know what I mean. I'd love to get some advice from him if we get the chance to talk."

"You think advice from a recluse who only works on a random assortment of bizarre cases would be helpful?" Scully scoffed. "Well, I suppose you do have some things in common."

"Are you kidding? L is a genius! Remember when he solved that locked room serial killer case with Agent Misora?"

"You mean  _ ex _ -agent Misora?"

Mulder stood up straight and folded his arms. "Scully, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you  _ weren't _ excited to go work with a world-famous detective on an unprecedented international case."

"Forgive me if I'm not looking forward to a thirteen-hour flight."

"But Scully, this is the case of a  _ lifetime _ ."

Scully sighed. "Well, I have to admit you're right about that."

"So you're coming, right?"

"I wouldn't let you run loose in Japan on your own. You're liable to chase a  _ zashiki-warashi _ out into the mountains and never come back."

Mulder's face lit up. "You  _ do _ know your Japanese folklore!"

"I took a few classes in college." Scully stepped over a few scattered file folders on her way to her desk and opened a drawer. "Now where the hell did I leave my passport?"

* * *

At the time, she had assumed they wouldn't be in Japan for long. Surely a lot of the incidents of the so-called "Kira case" could be chalked up to coincidence, and criminals couldn't keep dying of heart attacks at such an alarming rate for much longer. Interest in the theory that one supernatural individual was the perpetrator behind all the deaths would wane, and she and Mulder would head back home with no more answers than they started with, as per usual. But a week later, she was still living out of a suitcase at a hotel in Tokyo, listening to her partner wax poetic about the secretive private investigator who had summoned them there.

Half-listening, anyway. She didn't quite catch the end of it.

"Well, if you're so certain that there's something suspicious about Light Yagami, you should report it to your new best friend L."

"Scully, you sound completely disinterested, as well as somewhat sarcastic. But I'm going to ignore that and take your advice anyway." Mulder picked up the phone on the bedside table and dialed a number that he had apparently already memorized.

"You don't really have L's personal phone number, do you?" Scully asked, a hint of amusement in her voice.

"Just Watari's," Mulder replied. "It's easy to remember because—ah! Yes, this is Agent Mulder, FBI. I have an important report for L."

Scully chuckled as Mulder rolled his eyes at a muffled response from Watari.

"No, it  _ can't _ wait until tomorrow. It's about Light Yagami. Thank you." Mulder covered the mouthpiece of the phone and addressed his partner in a stage whisper. "I'm on hold."

Scully stood up and looked out the hotel window at the Tokyo skyline. This case had so far been a frustrating one in most regards, but at least she appreciated the view.

After a few minutes, Mulder—whom she could hear fidgeting with a pencil behind her—spoke again.

"Thanks for taking my call. I wanted to make a report about what happened today with—well, no, I'm not. My partner is here too—Agent Scully ."

Scully turned around. "Should I leave?"

Mulder shrugged at her and continued to speak into the phone. "Um, okay. If you don't mind."

He pressed a button on the phone cradle, and an English-accented voice Scully had grown very accustomed to over the past few days filled the room.

"It's no use asking Agent Mulder to speak to me alone. I knew before I requested the two of you that you worked as a unit. If he's going to repeat what I say to you afterward anyway, I might as well speak to you both at once. Less chance for misinterpretation."

Scully rolled her eyes, grateful that L couldn't see her.

"Continue with your report, Agent Mulder."

Mulder launched into the tale of the bus hijacking, perhaps even more animatedly than the first time. Scully watched as he paced the limited floor space of the hotel room and wondered what L—who remained completely silent—might be thinking.

His silence continued after the story's conclusion for so long that Scully wondered if the call might have been cut off. She could tell from Mulder's expression that he shared her concerns, and the beginning of L's eventual response clearly came as a relief.

"Thank you for the report, Agent Mulder. You were right—it was too important to wait."

Mulder grinned and raised his eyebrows at Scully as if to say, "I told you so." Scully couldn't help but smile.

"That being said," L continued. "This means that I'll need to keep Light Yagami under observation, and I'm sure you understand that I can no longer use someone he's met already. Additionally, while I will take your theories under advisement, you strike me as somewhat . . . emotionally involved in this case.  _ Overly _ emotionally involved."

"What do you mean?" asked Mulder.

"I don't believe I will be requiring your services any further. Yours or your partner's."

While Scully reacted with quiet indignation, Mulder jumped to her defence.

"Hey, don't kick Scully off the case because of me! She has nothing to do with it. She thinks I'm crazy too!"

Scully threw her hands in the air. "I don't think you're  _ crazy _ , Mulder, I just doubt that—"

"I'm trying to defend you here!"

"Like I said," L interjected, his voice still calm and emotionless. "All my research about your previous work indicated that the two of you are a unit. If I don't need one, I don't need the other. Please speak to Watari if you have any further questions."

A loud dial tone rung through the speakers, and Mulder slammed the phone back down on the cradle.

"He doesn't need us? Like hell he doesn't need us! He has no  _ idea _ what I could do on this case!"

Scully swallowed her own frustration and tried for a comforting tone of voice. "Mulder, I understand why you're upset, but he's right that any cover you had has been blown by now."

"Light hasn't met you, though! You've barely had a chance to do anything yet! And he just dismissed you too, because of me?"

"Would you want me to keep working on this case without you?" Scully asked. " _ I _ wouldn't."

Mulder sunk his fist into one of the pillows on the hotel bed. "To hell with what L thinks. Let's stay."

"What do you mean?"

"Scully, you _know_ there's more to this case than just 'mass hysteria,' don't you? There's something going on with that Light Yagami kid, and it's something big. This case isn't over yet, and when L realizes that, he's going to wish he had two of the world's foremost paranormal experts on his side." As he spoke, Mulder approached Scully's position near the window, and gestured out at the sea of city lights. "Let's stay in Japan! Let's keep looking into things on our own for a while until he figures that out and comes crawling back."

Mulder's newfound enthusiasm was infectious, but even with a smile on her lips, Scully was skeptical. "You're saying we should take time off our jobs at the  _ FBI _ to conduct our own extrajudicial investigation in a foreign country?"

"Skinner won't mind. He loves us."

Scully laughed. "I'll think about it."

"You do that."

Mulder fixed Scully with an intense gaze, as if the right amount of prolonged eye contact would convince her to go along with his outlandish scheme.

And maybe it could.

"I, uh—it's late," she intoned. "I should get to bed."

"Right!" Mulder stepped back, giving her space to navigate the cramped path from the window to the door. "But we'll talk tomorrow?"

"Of course we will."

As she brushed past her partner on the way out, Dana Scully's decision was already made.

* * *

A week later, Light Yagami slid a piece of paper out of the modified envelope that had contained it, revealing the details and assorted times of death he had written next to the slots reserved for his victim to write down names. He showed the paper to Ryuk with a smile.

"Now all the FBI agents have acted the same way . . . and died of heart attacks after receiving the file containing the others' information," he explained. "But the order they died, and the order they received the files, were totally random."

"That was pretty smart, Light!" the shinigami chirped in response.

Light smirked as he opened the false bottom of his desk drawer to conceal the evidence. "Would you expect anything less?"

"The one thing I don't understand is why you didn't just use that FBI agent from the bus hijacking to get the others' information—after you went to all that trouble to get his name!"

"His name?" Light reflected on his encounter with the underqualified foreigner on the bus. That unique name of his stood out in Light's memory—but then again, a lot of foreigners had strange names. "That would have been useful as a backup plan if I hadn't been able to track down one of the other agents instead. But the information I really needed from him was whom he worked for."

Ryuk stroked his chin. "Ah. I see."

"And as you saw earlier this week, it's not too difficult for someone with my level of skill to figure out the names of one or two other FBI agents who might be in the country. Not all of them are as careful about information security as they should be."

"So if you  _ hadn't _ been able to learn another one's name with that . . .  _ computer _ of yours—"

"Then I would have had that agent we saw on the bus meet us in the subway today, yes. That wouldn't have been too bad. But it was even better that I could be absolutely certain the first request for information came from . . . "

"Agent Weekwood?"

"Weekwood—that was it. An agent with no connection to me whatsoever."

"I see, I see! Humans are  _ interesting _ ." Ryuk hovered closer to Light and peered over his shoulder at the loose pages from the Death Note in the drawer. "Hey, so what time is that other agent we met on the bus going to die anyway? I'm curious! Is he dead already?"

"Hmm." Light looked down at the list and furrowed his brow. "He's not—"

"What, what? He's not on the list?"

"Why is—ah." Light quickly resumed a relaxed posture. "Well, see if you can figure out why he's not on the list. Remember what Weekwood said on the train?"

Ryuk recalled the relevant revelation: "I . . . heard it's a total of twelve agents," the terrified Weekwood had stammered before correcting herself, "No—ten. There were twelve when we started, but then I heard two got kicked off the case. I . . . I don't know why. I'm sorry."

"He must have been one of the two who were kicked off the case!" Ryuk exclaimed with glee. "I wonder why!"

"So do I," Light murmured. "It might have something to do with what happened during the hijacking. I'll have to keep an eye on him if I can. But as long as he's no longer investigating me, and he's probably left the country . . ."

Light snapped the false bottom of the drawer shut and leaned back in his chair.

"I suppose I can let Fox Mulder live for now."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translator's note: エクス means X
> 
> Also a zashiki-warashi is like a spooky child ghost or something, honestly I just scoured wikipedia for something that would sound cool for Scully to say


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kira killed 10 of the FBI agents in Japan, but 2 of them survived

Ten FBI agents found dead of heart attacks across three prefectures of Japan—all in the same day and all carrying notes indicating that they had been investigating the NPA and its handling of the Kira case.

Mulder and Scully watched the news about it all day in their hotel, any plans they had made about their own investigation forgotten. There was no way to miss any of the details, even with their rudimentary Japanese—it was on every station, over and over again.

Scully—even more so than Mulder, who had already been convinced of the veracity of the Kira theories—was in shock. While she clung to the hope that there was still some kind of rational, understandable reason behind the killer's mysterious abilities, this incident all but proved that there really was a person—or a group of people—who could commit murder by heart attack, possibly even from a distance and with an intentional delay. And even more disturbing than that affront to her skeptical sensibilities was the fact that it could have been her or Mulder—one might have even said that it  _ should _ have been. They had been working on the same case as those other agents until only recently. The only reason that the two of them hadn't become Kira's eleventh and twelfth targets—hadn't died suddenly and in terrible pain an ocean away from their homes—seemed to be that they had been kicked off that case.

Apparently, Mulder's wild theorizing and L's unimpressed, pragmatic approach had saved both Mulder and Scully's lives.

Scully had once asked someone how she would die—an old man Mulder believed was a psychic, in a hotel room not dissimilar to the one she sat in as she watched the news and reflected on the past. All the so-called soothsayer had said was, "You don't."

Scully had worked on a lot of cases that she had tried to forget—the ones that were especially violent or tragic, and the ones that posed significant contradictions to her views of the world, or that simply made no sense. Sometimes she succeeded. But she was never able to forget that elderly psychic, or his death the following day—by his own hand, in a scene just as he had described in that motel room.

Not that that meant he could really see the future, of course. He had probably just planned it all in advance. And he had probably said "You don't" just to throw her off—just to give her a prediction that it would seem silly to argue with. That was probably all it meant.

In all the shock and confusion of the first day Mulder and Scully heard the news, it was a while before an important thought occurred to either one of them:  _ L might not know that we're alive _ .

Surely, they reasoned, L would have tried to check on them after the other agents were found dead—if nothing else, their death or lack thereof could provide an important clue about Kira's information and/or priorities. But they hadn't spoken to the detective since he had dismissed them. He would have had no reason to believe that they were still in Japan, and would likely have been trying to contact them in Washington, if at all.

Calls to Watari weren't going through—whether because he was no longer using the number they had or simply because he and L were too busy dealing with all the latest Kira incidents, they couldn't be sure. And so it was in an attempt to at least pass on the information that she and Mulder weren't dead, in case it might be useful to the investigation, that Scully ended up in the front office of NPA headquarters, insisting that she had to speak to someone in the Kira task force.

"How many times do I have to tell you this?" a frustrated receptionist replied. "There's no one in the Kira task force office right now."

"How could nobody be there?" Scully retorted in exasperation. She understood that the receptionist must have been under strict orders to keep the operations of the task force secret, but couldn't he at least inform them that someone with important information about Kira was trying to get in touch? 

"I'm Light Yagami, son of detective superintendent Yagami," a third voice interjected, addressing another receptionist and immediately grabbing Scully's attention. "I brought my father a change of clothes, but I guess he isn't here. Can you give this to him?"

Light Yagami—the young man Mulder had been so concerned about after the bus hijacking, and the son of a high-ranking member of the Kira task force. If she was able to gain his trust, Scully mused, he might be her ticket to contacting L. But as ridiculous as Mulder's idea that this high school student had some kind of monster at his beck and call was, he  _ had _ drawn enough suspicion to be under investigation on L's orders—and the possibility that there really  _ was _ someone in Japan who could cause a heart attack with a blink of an eye was growing distressingly more believable by the day. She might have to reveal some of what she knew to get his attention, but she would have to be very careful.

* * *

Why was that foreign woman so insistent about seeing the task force? Light watched her out of the corner of his eye as he suffered through mundane small talk with a fawning receptionist, playing his practiced role of devoted son and hardworking honour student.

As annoying as it usually was when strangers in the NPA office stopped him to ask about his history of helping his father, it occurred to him that it might be useful this time, if it got that woman's attention and helped him figure out what she knew.

"You can trust us," he heard the other receptionist say to the woman. "We promise you, we'll pass your message on to the task force."

"My father heads the task force investigating the Kira case," Light exclaimed, turning to face her. "So if you'd like, I can put you in touch with him."

His innocent act seemed to work, as always. Spouting further justifications about why she should trust him with a message to his father, he encouraged the woman to sit down with him on a bench in the lobby, their backs to the security cameras. But there was still something tentative about her demeanour—as he would expect from any intelligent person faced with a young stranger claiming to have the solutions to all their problems. He would need something a bit more substantial to get her to talk.

"The way I figure it," he muttered conspiratorially. "Kira has far greater powers than people think."

He noticed the woman's eyes widening in surprise for a moment, before her expression hardened.

"I've noticed that too," she replied. "That's why I'm here."

"You've noticed that too? That's amazing."

Light didn't even have to lie this time. He really was impressed that a strange woman who seemed unconnected to the police would have figured that out—impressed  _ and _ concerned. He definitely had to make sure that whatever her message was, it didn't make it to L.

"But this isn't the place to be," he continued. "Let's step outside."

She followed him out onto the busy public street, away from the NPA's security cameras. Light noticed Ryuk chuckling as she did, and wondered if he was amused by the woman's easily misplaced trust. Then again, maybe it was about something else entirely. Light couldn't claim to fully understand the mind of a shinigami.

"I always prefer walking around outside when I don't want anyone to hear what I'm saying," Light explained with a smile. "I hope you don't mind."

"I don't mind."

"The way I see it, Kira . . ." Light pretended to trail off in distraction before switching topics. "Um, would you mind telling me your name? I'm Light Yagami. You write the kanji for—do you read kanji?"

"Not very well," the woman admitted.

"Never mind, then. It's just written in an unusual way. And you are?"

"Denise Bryson."

Ryuk's laughter seemed to grow louder in response to the woman's name. Light paid him no mind, instead repeating the name in his head a few times before risking a strategic reveal of information.

"I think Kira can do more than just kill people," he said. "It seems to me he can control their actions before they die."

He watched Denise's reaction carefully for any hint of surprise or recognition, but this time, she remained cool.

"So when you say 'Kira,' you mean you think there really is one individual behind all this?" she asked. "I don't disagree with you about the possibility that victims can be . . . influenced to act a certain way before their deaths, but why assume there's only one Kira? Wouldn't it be easier for a larger organization to carry out these crimes?"

"Well . . ." Light fumbled for an answer to this unexpected line of questioning, to Ryuk's apparent amusement. "If it was a big group of people, don't you think L would have caught them by now? It's much harder for a big group to keep a secret than for one person, right?"

Denise chuckled. "You'd be surprised by what secrets I've seen large conspiracies keep."

"What do you mean?" Light asked. "Are you . . . some kind of detective?"

"Something like that. Either way, I assume that you're basing your theories on the notes written by some prisoners prior to their deaths?"

"Yes. I think Kira might have forced them to write them, as some way of taunting the police."

"That could explain the deaths of the FBI agents as well."

"You think so?" Light answered cautiously.

"This . . . 'Kira' . . . person, or group, seems to need to know a person's name in order to kill them," she explained. "Figuring out the names of ten undercover agents on separate parts of the case in different prefectures couldn't have been an easy feat. But if Kira was able to find out  _ one _ of their names, then perhaps they could manipulate, or even . . .  _ compel _ that agent into giving up the others."

Light nodded and mumbled words of agreement while weighing his options in his head. This woman could be a serious danger to him. While her reasoning wasn't perfect, she was on the right track, and her offhand comment about conspiracies suggested that she had investigative experience.

Could it be possible that she was already working for L? Did he plant her in the NPA office to get his attention?

No—that couldn't be it. L had no reason to suspect Light after he made such a good show of being a normal student while that FBI agent was tailing him. It wouldn't make any logical sense for him to be under investigation. What was much more likely was that this woman really  _ was _ honestly trying to contact L—and it would be in Light's best interests to stop her.

"What's the matter?" she asked him.

Deep in thought, he had stopped walking alongside her. "Oh, nothing. I've just been thinking over what you said. Was that the message you wanted me to pass on to my father?"

"If you could have him contact me at my hotel, I'd like to discuss my theories with him further."

Light slipped a pen and a fragment of paper from the Death Note out of his pocket, eager to take this chance to get rid of her.

"Denise Bryson, right? How do you spell that?" Light wrote the name down according to her instructions, but rather than following it with the address and phone number she gave him, he described a suicide that would take place after 48 hours of careful planning, beginning in just one minute.

He smiled and put the paper away. Ryuk's laughter, Light's constant companion throughout this entire encounter, grew raucous and gleeful. He sounded exceedingly triumphant for someone who repeatedly insisted that he wasn't really on Light's side.

"I think I'll head back to headquarters just in case," the doomed woman said. "If I can manage to get a hold of someone there, it might be faster than to wait for your father to turn his phone back on. But thank you for your help, Yagami-san."

Light watched her turn back the way they came with increasing anxiety as he double-checked the time on his watch. This wasn't right—she should have lost all drive to do anything but plan for her suicide by now.

Ryuk's laughter continued, suddenly sounding hollow and malicious in Light's ears. Of course—she had given him an alias. That was what Ryuk found so funny.

He took a step after her, debating potentially violent strategies for finding out her real name before letting her go.

"Are you heading back to look for your father too?" she asked, and Light was forced to improvise once more.

* * *

"I met your friend Light Yagami," Scully announced, flinging open the door to Mulder's hotel room. "I have to admit, I can see why you're suspicious of him now."

"Did you see anything weird? Touch any pieces of paper?" Mulder replied, muting the news that was still playing on the TV.

"No, I'm still not convinced about this whole invisible monster idea of yours," Scully retorted. "But I can see why you wanted to keep him under investigation."

"What happened?"

"The NPA receptionists wouldn't let me speak to anyone on the task force, but Light 'just so happened' to be there," Scully explained while sinking into one of the hotel room's stiff armchairs. "He offered to pass on a message to his father for me, but he seemed like he was trying to probe for information about who I am and how much I know."

"What did you tell him?"

"I gave him an alias and borrowed a few of your theories—about 'Kira' controlling people before they die and using that power to get the other agents' information."

Mulder turned off the muted TV he had been half-watching and turned to look his partner in the eye. "Scully. I'm so proud."

"Don't get  _ too _ excited. I didn't repeat them because I believe them. Just because it seemed to be the line of reasoning he expected."

"Yeah. He expected you to be right."

Scully scoffed and chose not to dignify that last comment with a response. "The strangest thing was . . . when I tried to leave, he practically chased after me. Tried to claim that he was really a member of the task force himself, and that he had been testing me to see whether I was worthy of joining. I knew that that must be a lie unless things have  _ drastically _ changed in the past week or so, so I just made up an excuse to turn in another direction and came back here."

"That's definitely suspicious," Mulder responded, leaning in to take in every word of the story. "I knew there was something going on with that kid."

"I don't know," Scully sighed. "He might have just been an average teenage boy trying to impress a woman with false stories of his own importance. But . . . there did seem to be something . . .  _ weird _ about him. I can't deny that I understand how you feel."

"Did it feel like something . . .  _ supernatural _ ? Did you  _ sense _ the invisible monster?" Mulder asked, failing to keep a straight face.

Scully laughed. "I'm not quite that far gone yet. But I really hope he passes that message onto the task force. It's another thing I'd like to talk to L about."

"You think he might not?"

"He  _ did _ seem like he was trying to discourage me from getting in touch with the task force, especially with those absurd assertions before I left. Which makes me think that he's  _ not _ planning to pass the message on at all, unless . . ." Scully pondered for a moment. "Unless he's worried that I'll find another way to contact the task force, and that I'll tell them that he was supposed to pass on the message and didn't. That would reflect badly on him, so it might be to his advantage to actually pass on the message to them first."

Mulder affected an exaggerated thinking pose. "Run that one by me again?"

Scully smiled and shook her head before sinking deeper into the armchair. "The other issue is, I never gave him my real name. I think that was probably the right choice, but—if the task force really gets the message, I hope they connect the phone number and hotel address to us, instead of just being confused by the name."

"I'm sure L will figure it out."

As if on cue, the phone rang. Mulder jumped up and pressed the speakerphone button immediately.

To the relief of both of them, it was a very familiar voice that greeted them with, "Denise Bryson, I presume?"

"That's your alias?" Mulder asked.

Scully shrugged. "Well, it worked."

L continued as if they hadn't said anything. "While I have my questions about why the two of you remained in Japan after I dismissed you from the Kira case, I'm glad to discover that you're unharmed. And you did well using an alias, Agent Scully."

"Thank you. If you have time, I'd like to provide you with some more information about my meeting with Light Yagami earlier today."

"Since you're still here, and you've shown some measure of intelligence and dedication . . ."

L paused. Mulder shot Scully a thumbs up.

". . . consider yourselves reinstated as members of the Kira task force. Please meet Watari in the lobby of the Imperial Hotel as soon as possible."

L hung up even more abruptly than he had the previous week, and Mulder threw his hands into the air in celebration.

"Scully! You got us back on the case! Or should I call you Agent Bryson now?"

"Very funny." Scully rolled her eyes in spite of a smile. "But if we're in front of Light Yagami, maybe you should."

"I owe you one for pulling this off, Scully. From now on, I'll call you whatever you want."

Scully stood up and smoothed out her blazer. "Come on. We'd better head over to meet Watari right away if you don't want to get reprimanded again."

"So we can discuss new nicknames later?"

"How about when this case is over?"

Continuing their usual banter, the last two FBI agents alive in Japan re-embarked on their quest to catch history's most prolific and mysterious killer.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Light is happy to join the Kira task force, but shocked to see two unexpected faces among its ranks

On a warm April morning in Tokyo, sunlight streaming through the window of her bedroom woke Dana Scully up a few minutes before her alarm.

Once it had become clear that she and Mulder would be long-term members of the Kira task force, they had moved into a shared apartment rather than a hotel. High rental prices in Tokyo and inadequate funding from the FBI had confined them to one that would be far too small for two people to co-exist happily under regular circumstances, but since they spent most of their waking hours at L's mobile base of operations, they had been able to manage so far.

Scully frowned at the limited options for clean clothes in her closet. Laundry was one of many tasks that had disappeared from her priority list over the past few days—since the appearance of the individual L was calling the "Second Kira" and the untimely death of her fellow task force member Hirokazu Ukita. Long hours at work had become even longer as everyone struggled to address this new threat while mourning a colleague and continuing their original investigation.

After selecting a clean but crumpled suit, Scully rapped lightly on the door to the other room.

"Hmm? Yeah, I'm awake," Mulder replied from the other side.

Scully exited her bedroom to find her roommate in the process of putting away the futon he slept on. Like her, his clothes were noticeably disheveled—they might have been the same ones he had been wearing the previous day.

"You don't always have to knock before leaving your bedroom, you know," he said.

"Well, I wouldn't want to walk in on you watching porn out here," she retorted as, in a few steps, she crossed the floor of the small kitchen on her way to the bathroom.

"Why would I do that, Scully?" he called out as the bathroom door swung shut. "It's all censored over here. You can barely see anything!"

She re-emerged to continue the conversation a few minutes later, by which point Mulder had started brewing their morning coffee.

"Either way, I'd rather not just barge into your bedroom, even if it _is_ the only way out of mine."

"Don't worry about it, really."

"You're _sure_ you don't want to switch rooms?" she asked as she scanned the mostly bare shelves of the refrigerator for something suitable for breakfast. "It feels a bit unfair that I have my own personal space, and you have . . . the kitchen floor."

Mulder shrugged. "Lots of people sleep on the floor in Japan. Besides, I'm doing more reviewing case files than sleeping anyway. I don't need much space for that."

"Well, if you're sure." She examined a package of yogurt cups, and handed one to Mulder after concluding that its expiry date was acceptable, if not ideal.

"Thanks." Mulder checked his watch. "We'd better get going soon."

"Then eat quickly."

* * *

Light Yagami smirked when his father finally called and invited him to join the Kira task force. It was about time.

After a short taxi ride, he strode confidently into L's hotel room—and stopped in his tracks when he saw the group gathered there to greet him.

There was L, of course, and his father, and two more Japanese policemen who introduced themselves as Matsui and Aihara. But next to those faces he had expected were two that he had hoped he would never see again—FBI Agent Fox Mulder, and the woman from the NPA lobby who had given him the alias "Denise Bryson."

Light barely listened to anything L or his father said to him, as immediately fixated as he was on the presence of these two interlopers. Mulder should have left the country months ago—why was he still there? Was there any chance that his presence at the bus hijacking would lead him to draw the connection that Light was Kira? And who in the world _was_ Denise Bryson? What had her real message to L been that day that he failed to prevent her from meeting him? Was there anything he could have done differently in order to avoid this outcome?

Since everyone in the task force was using code names for safety, meeting "Denise" again didn't even get him any closer to learning her name. Not that he would have had any immediate use for it—killing any members of the task force right after he joined would have been far too suspicious—but it infuriated him all the same. Light vowed that on the day he gained enough power and information to overthrow the task force entirely, her true name would take its rightful place in the Death Note, right next to L's.

Since the two of them were working together on a dangerous case, he wondered if it might eventually be plausible for them to get into the same accident. But for the time being, he had to dismiss those thoughts and put on a convincing act as a dedicated detective.

* * *

Despite their misgivings about Light Yagami, Mulder and Scully agreed that L's plan of adding him to the task force was the best one they had. Keeping him close and watching his reactions to any new incidents would be an effective way to determine whether he was really somehow involved with "Kira"—and if it turned out that he wasn't, his reasoning ability was certainly an asset as well. Scully was glad to have as many hands on deck as possible a few days later, when the team gathered to watch the latest message from the "Second Kira." 

"Please think of a way we can meet without the police knowing," the distorted voice from the video tape continued. "We can confirm each other when we meet by showing our shinigami."

At the word "shinigami," L, who had been sitting upright on the floor, collapsed backwards.

"Shinigami?" he repeated in a strained and trembling whisper. "Are we supposed to accept the existence of such a thing?"

In contrast, Mulder's face lit up as he leaned closer to the TV screen. "Shinigami! Of course! That's where Kira's power comes from!"

"Shinigami? No way," Matsuda intoned.

"You're right," said Light. "They can't possibly exist."

"And why not?" Mulder asked. "The first Kira also hinted at the existence of shinigami months ago, in one of the notes he was forcing prisoners to write. And what else could grant the power to commit mass murder from a distance but an ancient god of death?"

"I—I think it's just some kind of code word," Light retorted with what sounded like slight hesitancy in his tone. "Maybe this 'shinigami' term is describing the ability to kill. 'Confirming each other by showing our shinigami'—we could think of that as meaning that they will show each other their abilities to kill people."

"Yes . . ." L murmured in response, regaining some of his composure. "At the very least, we know that the word 'shinigami' has some kind of meaning between the two of them."

"More than that, we have a working theory about the source of their powers! It might _not_ be just a metaphor. It might be the answer to everything!" Mulder exclaimed.

"Believing in real shinigami . . ." Aizawa replied. "I don't know. It sounds a little far fetched."

"I'm not so sure about that," Scully interjected. "Under different circumstances, I would be the first to agree with you. But at this point, when it's clear that at least two people really do have some kind of . . . _unprecedented_ ability to cause spontaneous heart attacks from a distance, with nothing but the knowledge of someone's name and face . . . why couldn't they have gained that ability from contact with some kind of previously undiscovered being? I don't think we can rule it out, at any rate."

As she fumbled for the right words to express her increasingly open-minded approach to the investigation, Scully recalled the last time she had heard someone argue for the existence of a god of death—a photographer who was under suspicion for murder because of his uncanny ability to predict any stranger's imminent demise and arrive on the scene to immortalize their last breath on camera. The man claimed to have evaded death in his youth by looking away the moment its personification came for him, dooming a nurse at his bedside instead. Subsequently cursed with unwanted immortality, he wandered the streets of New York on an unending quest to capture the image of death so that he could finally look upon its face as he had been meant to a century ago.

Scully had conversed with the photographer in his haunting darkroom, searching for a way to exonerate him of the murder charges. As skeptical as she had been of his story, she couldn't help but react with fear when he claimed he could tell that she, like the sad subjects of his work, was about to die. And a carelessly aimed bullet—from an arrogant agent she had been temporarily paired with at the time—really _had_ struck her just moments later, convincing her as she lay bleeding on the floor that this was really the end.

The last thing she remembered hearing before she lost consciousness was the photographer urging her to close her eyes, to avoid seeing the face of death. And then she woke up in the hospital, and Mulder stood by her bedside and told her that the murder suspect had died.

Which just went to show that the strange old man wasn't really immortal, she had thought at the time. He was as vulnerable to bullets as anyone else, and he had clearly never had any supernatural power for predicting others' deaths, because she was fine. She couldn't have looked some kind of death god in the eye if she had wanted to, because it didn't exist.

But this case was different. Shinigami or not, Scully couldn't ignore the fact that _something_ had given _someone_ incredible power over life and death. It only made sense to explore every possibility.

"Well, if even _she_ agrees with me, I'm definitely on the right track!" Mulder exclaimed, before lowering his voice to direct the following jab at his partner only: "Either that, or she's running a fever."

"You do make a convincing argument," L said. "But regardless, I think most of the task force should focus on sending another reply to learn more about this second Kira for now. If you'd like to conduct some research into your theories, I don't mind—there's a chance it will turn out to be useful. But the rest of us will continue to prioritize the more pressing issue at hand." 

"You _bet_ it will turn out to be useful! I'll be back later." Mulder raced out of the room as if he was hot on the heels of an invisible god of death.

* * *

Light watched him leave with exasperation. He was furious with this false Kira for being so careless, and just as irritated that an investigator had really taken such an absurd statement seriously. Couldn't everyone else see how reckless and idiotic this impersonator was? Why couldn't they just dismiss most of the contents of the tapes as the ramblings of a madman? He would have to find a way to deal with whoever was behind all this soon.

At least this Fox Mulder character's unbridled enthusiasm for the supernatural appeared to be bordering on an irrational obsession. The other American was the only one who seemed to take him somewhat seriously, and even she was halting in her endorsement of his theories. With any luck, the rest of the task force would dismiss whatever he came up with out of hand. None of them would simply be willing to accept that shinigami were real—and even if they were, there was surely nothing that man could find in a library book that would describe the true nature of Ryuk and the Death Note.

Was there? 

* * *

"You're sure you don't need help carrying all those books, Mulder?" Scully asked on the walk back to their apartment from the subway station later that night.

"I'm fine," Mulder insisted, despite all evidence to the contrary. He seemed to have checked out the Tokyo Metropolitan Library's entire stock of English books on Japanese folklore, and a few more besides.

"If you say so." Scully led the way up the dingy stairs of their building, her partner trailing behind.

"We have mail?" Mulder asked when he caught up to her at the front door, which was blocked by a large cylindrical package.

"Hand me those books already and open it."

Mulder followed her instructions, but not without complaint. "Why am I the one who has to take the risk of opening the suspicious package?"

"Because you can clearly handle it, with how strong and manly you are carrying all those books," Scully responded as she unlocked the door to put them down on the coffee table.

By the time she re-entered the hall, Mulder had torn off the packaging and removed the lid of a tube-like container. He slid out a large piece of glossy paper and unrolled it.

"My poster!"

Scully smiled at the spark of happiness in her partner's eyes, as well as at the familiar sight of a blurry UFO picture captioned with the slogan, "I want to believe."

"Did you plan this?" he asked.

"I asked Skinner to mail it over. So you would at least have something that's yours in your poor excuse for a bedroom."

"Thank you. That's really thoughtful of you, Scully." Mulder squeezed her shoulder for a moment before practically skipping through the door and holding the poster up to the bare wall. "I'm going to hang this up and then sit next to it and read my shinigami books all night."

Scully laughed. "Sounds like a plan. _I'm_ going to go to sleep."

"I'll wake you up if I find any major breakthroughs."

"Please don't. I know what a major breakthrough is by your standards, and it's not worth losing sleep over."

Scully headed to the bathroom to get ready for bed, wondering if Mulder seriously intended to spend the whole night on his research.

If he did, maybe she'd let him sleep in a bit in the morning, and then wake him up with a nice cup of coffee.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scully is shocked at L's treatment of the Second Kira suspect

The appearance of the second Kira had proved only to be the beginning of the task force's increased workload. Not even the arrest of a suspect—after several weeks consumed with analyzing and responding to the second Kira's videotapes—had made things any easier on Scully or her colleagues. With Misa Amane in a makeshift prison of L's design, the task force members had to balance their time between monitoring the video feed of her cell and combing through the evidence against her for any clues that might lead back to the original Kira—all while under the increased pressure of worrying that the original might strike back in retaliation to the acolyte's arrest at any moment.

This unrelenting strain left no room for rest, which was the reason that Scully, Matsuda, Aizawa, and Chief Yagami were all half-asleep in various uncomfortable positions, scattered around L's hotel room, when Watari's voice from L's laptop awoke them.

"Ryuzaki. Amane is speaking."

"What?" L replied. "Visuals and audio now!"

The screen dissolved from the stylized letter L that most commonly adorned it into an image of a bound captive with an opaque black visor affixed over her eyes.

"I . . . can't take it anymore," the girl's hoarse voice came through the speakers. "Kill me! Hurry up and kill me."

While L stared, transfixed, at the screen, his colleagues all began exchanging worried glances behind him.

"You said she hasn't had water in three days, right?" Aizawa asked.

"That's too much for a twenty-year-old girl." Matsuda shook his head in disbelief. "She must be at her limit."

"She hasn't had  _ water _ in  _ three days _ ?" Scully repeated, aghast. "L,  _ please _ tell me they're exaggerating."

L ignored their questions, instead leaning into the microphone attached to the computer. "Misa Amane, can you hear me?"

"Yes," the prisoner replied. "Please . . . kill me . . . now."

"Does this mean that in the face of overwhelming evidence, you are acknowledging that you are the second Kira and giving up?'

"No, I don't know anything about that. I can't take this . . . I'd rather be dead."

Scully slammed her hand on the table next to the laptop. "Ryuzaki, you are  _ torturing _ this poor woman! Do you have any idea how psychologically damaging this kind of solitary confinement can be? And that's not even mentioning the dehydration!"

L replied as coolly as usual, despite the fact that just a moment ago he had almost jumped out of his chair. "I'm not doing this because I want to. All of the evidence points toward her being the second Kira. She could kill us at any moment if we allowed her to move and gave her a chance to look at our faces. I'm sure she'll confess soon."

"Any confession you get  _ now _ would be completely meaningless!" Scully shouted as she gestured toward the laptop screen, still displaying the downtrodden Misa begging for death. "I'm going down there to give that girl a break and a drink of water."

"If you remove the eye covering you could be in serious danger!" L warned.

Scully threw her arms up in exasperation as she stormed out of the room. "Well, if she kills me, then there's your proof that she's the second Kira! Win-win!"

Whirling into the hotel corridor, Scully almost crashed into Mulder, who was approaching the door with yet more library books.

"Whoa! Everything alright, Scully?" Mulder asked as he fumbled to avoid upsetting the carefully balanced stack.

"It's fine," she spat. "I'm just going to check on Amane."

"Do you want me to come with you for backup?"

Scully rolled her eyes. "I'm not afraid that she's going to  _ magically _ kill me the moment she sees my face if  _ that's _ what you're worried about."

Mulder raised his eyebrows and stepped out of her way. "Okay. Just asking."

"I—I'm sorry." Scully sighed, making no move to continue past him. "I'm just . . . frustrated with L. How's it going with those books?"

"Oh, it's great! I'm making progress!" Mulder replied, the smile returning to his face. "I'm learning a lot about references to gods of death in classical Japanese literature. Did you know that 'kami,' the word for 'god,' is pronounced the same as the word for 'paper'? Different kanji, of course, but still—Japanese is so interesting."

"I'm . . . not sure how relevant that is to the investigation."

"Are you kidding me? Remember that thing with the piece of paper during the bus hijacking? Maybe it's related."

"Right. Well I'll make sure not to give Amane any scraps of paper she could use against me." Scully gave her partner a teasing smile before resuming her path down the hall to the elevator.

"I'm serious, Scully!" he called after her with a grin. "Look out for those paper death gods!"

* * *

Considering her grave disagreement with L, Scully had been expecting the eccentric detective to send another member of the team after her to stop her from speaking to Misa Amane. But no one else arrived at the confinement cell, even as she removed the frail girl's restraints and eye covering and handed her a plastic water bottle. She wondered if L might have decided that her sarcastic suggestion about waiting to see whether Misa would kill her was worth following. 

"Thank you," the suspect rasped after gulping down the water. "Who are you? Why are you helping me? Are you—"

"My name is Denise Bryson," Scully replied.

Misa cocked her head. "Huh? Denise?"

"Yes. I'm a member of the Kira task force."

"Oh. Okay." Misa looked down, apparently lost in thought. "Do you think I'm the second Kira too?"

"Are you?"

Misa shook her head vigorously. "No! I'm not! I don't even know why I was arrested! No one will tell me anything! I just went to visit my boyfriend at his university and suddenly these really scary guys grabbed me and said I was under arrest for being the second Kira! But I didn't kill anyone, I swear!"

Misa barely drew breath throughout her frantic tirade. Scully debated how to respond, weighing her sympathy for the suffering suspect with her duties to the task force and her desire to solve the case.

She decided on a line of inquiry that might brighten the girl's spirits a bit, at the same time as potentially yielding useful information. "Your boyfriend is Light Yagami, right?"

"Yes!" Misa exclaimed, a beaming smile washing over her face in spite of her circumstances. "You know him?"

"The task force has been investigating you, so we've done background checks on the people you're close to as well," Scully responded, careful not to reveal anything Misa might not know.

"So you know all about how smart he is, right?" Misa's strained voice drifted into a higher register as she listed her lover's virtues. "He had the top score on his entrance exams to To-Oh University! Well, one of two top scores, but it couldn't have been any higher! And we have so much in common, like, well—a lot of things— _ and _ he's so handsome! I can't wait to see him again. Do you think they might let him visit?"

Scully furrowed her brow. "That sounds . . . unlikely."

"Aww," Misa pouted. "I thought you'd say that, but . . . if I could just see him for a few seconds, it would make it so much easier to get through this. Have you ever been in love, Dana? I'm sure if you have, then you'll understand how I feel."

"That's . . . a very personal question." Scully blushed in spite of herself. "Hang on—what did you just call me?"

Misa gasped. "Oh, I'm sorry—did I get your name wrong? I'm not very good with names. I have to learn so many of them . . ."

"That's alright," Scully responded, her eyes narrowing. "It happens to everyone."

"That's long enough." L's voice from a speaker echoed through the cell. "I will be sending two guards to return the prisoner to her restraints shortly. Please step back and allow them to do their work."

* * *

Misa Amane knew that the only rational thing for her to do in this situation was cooperate with her captors. There was no way she could possibly escape—and even if she could, they would find her and arrest her again. All she could do was follow their orders. Maybe, if she managed to do that for a while, they would start to treat her a bit better, and lower their guard. Maybe, if she could hold out for long enough, Light would come and save her.

But even knowing all of that, she couldn't stop herself from struggling, fighting with every ounce of life she had left when two tall men with helmets covering their faces arrived to remove her mobility and vision once more.

They overpowered her, of course. It felt even worse than before, now that she'd had a small taste of freedom.

At least there was one thing L didn't know: she wasn't really alone.

"Are you alright, Misa?" Rem asked. Misa could tell from the sound of the familiar voice that the shinigami was hovering just behind her, as usual.

"Of course I'm not alright!" she snapped back. "I'm never going to get out of here! Even if they let me out for a little bit they'll just put me back every time! So why don't you kill me already?"

"You know I can't kill you, Misa," Rem responded softly. "I love you. And . . . Light loves you. I'm sure he has a plan. He'll rescue you somehow."

"When?" Misa's voice cracked. "I can't take this any longer!"

"But there is something I can do that might help." Rem paused, and it felt like an eternity to Misa before the shinigami finally offered the one form of respite she could. "You can relinquish ownership of the Death Note. Doing that will cause you to lose all memories related to it. Your memories of killing with the notebook, and of Light Yagami as Kira, will vanish."

Misa opened her mouth to protest that she couldn't possibly forget Light, but caught herself just in time, remembering that L might be listening in.

"You won't be able to betray any secrets," the shinigami continued. "And while you will no longer be able to see me or Ryuk . . . your love for Light Yagami will remain."

Misa took a deep breath. It overwhelmed her to imagine losing so many of her important memories, but if it meant that she didn't have to worry about accidentally revealing any of Light's secrets . . . and if maybe then L would realize that she really didn't know anything, and let her go . . .

If she still had her love for Light, she resolved, then she could handle anything.

"Do you wish to relinquish ownership of the Death Note?" Rem asked, her voice carrying a somber and ceremonial tone.

Misa smiled and nodded.

Immediately, she felt as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. A feeling of relief washed over her, tinged with a bittersweet melancholy. She felt like she was saying goodbye to an old friend, but she wasn't sure whom or why, and she was suddenly so tired that her eyelids drooped involuntarily behind the mask that covered them.

Her last disjointed thought before she fell asleep was a sense that she had been meaning to ask someone something—there had been something strange about that woman she had just met, the woman named . . . she had seen something unexpected when she looked at her, something that set her apart from other people, and she had been meaning to ask  _ someone _ what it meant— 

* * *

When Scully stepped out of the elevator on her way back to L's hotel room, Mulder was leaning against the wall, waiting for her and trying unsuccessfully to do some kind of sleight of hand with a chewed-up pencil.

"Are you doing good cop/bad cop with L now?" he asked, falling into step with her on her way down the hall. "I'm a little jealous."

"Of which one of us?" Scully scoffed. "And it's not some kind of scheme. I genuinely think someone should be at least a  _ little _ bit nice to her. She's a college-age girl who was suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a mass murderer—she's terrified."

"So you don't think she did it?"

"I'm not ruling it out completely, but she deserves to be considered innocent until proven guilty. The way L was treating her was completely inhumane."

"What did she say to you? Anything important?"

"She mostly talked about how much she misses her boyfriend." They reached the door to L's room, and Scully halted in her tracks and turned to face her partner. "Although . . . there was one thing that  _ was _ a little strange."

"What?" Mulder followed her lead and stopped, fixing his eyes on hers.

"She called me Dana."

Mulder smiled. "The nerve of that girl, addressing you by name."

"I didn't  _ tell _ her my name, Mulder," Scully explained. "I introduced myself as Denise Bryson, the same way I've been doing for months. But a few minutes later, she called me Dana."

Mulder waved the pencil he was holding in the air like a focused and serious orchestra conductor. "The first Kira needed a name  _ and _ a face to kill, but the second seemed to be able to do it with a face alone. Maybe a name is always necessary for whatever ritual they use to kill, but only the  _ second _ Kira had some way of finding out someone's name just from looking at them."

"What, you're suggesting that she looked at me and saw my name floating above my head?" Annoyed by the constant movement, Scully snatched Mulder's pencil out of his hand. "I'm sure it's nothing that ridiculous. 'Dana' isn't that far off from 'Denise'—people get mixed up and call acquaintances by the wrong names all the time. It was just a strange coincidence is all."

Mulder shook his head in mock disappointment. "It's not like you to fall for a suspect's sweet and innocent act, Scully."

"I said I'm not ruling out that she  _ could _ be guilty. But I saw her demo reel while we were investigating her, remember?" Scully turned the doorknob to L's room. "If she's acting now, her skills have  _ really _ improved."

Mulder shrugged and followed her back into the headquarters of the operation.

They found L hunched even further over his laptop than usual, listening to Misa Amane speak in a new tone that none of them had heard before.

"I'll give you an autograph and shake your hand, Mr. Stalker," the bound prisoner offered with exaggerated sweetness. "Oh, I'll give you a kiss on the cheek. Come on, I won't run away."

"Bryson," L addressed Scully without looking up from the screen. "She wasn't acting like this when you talked to her just now, was she? She knew what was going on?"

Scully nodded, unsure how to react to the new development. "She knew she was a Kira suspect. She referred to it more than once. Is it possible she somehow got the impression that someone new was monitoring the video feed? She could be trying out a new tactic."

Mulder leaned in and shook his head. "You just said it, Scully—she's not that good an actor."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I continue to get all of my knowledge of Japanese from wikipedia.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The members of the Kira task force move into their new headquarters and begin investigating the Yotsuba Grou

Despite Scully's best efforts, Misa Amane's confinement on L's orders lasted for eight weeks—during which the suspect repeatedly maintained that she had no knowledge whatsoever about the Kira case. But with Light Yagami and his father also imprisoned, and the Kira murders restarting after only a short break during that time, L eventually did have to admit that it was only fair to release them. Shortly after that, the members of the task force moved into their new headquarters, bringing both Misa Amane and the reinstated Light Yagami in order to keep them under a more relaxed level of investigation.

Moving always makes people realize that they own a great deal more stuff than they thought they did, and Agents Mulder and Scully were no exception. Even though they had spent less than a year in their cramped Tokyo apartment—and many more hours at work than at home during that time—packing everything up took much longer than anticipated. It ended up being quite late at night when they arrived, trolleys of cardboard boxes in tow, at the entrance of their new building.

Mulder looked around the vast lobby in awe as they crossed it on their way to the elevator. "L had all this built himself? How much money does that guy have? He could have been funding the lavish lifestyle we deserve this whole time."

"Careful." Scully checked the directions L had given them earlier and then pressed the button for their floor. "You never know when he might decide to watch all the security footage."

"What, you think I'm the next Kira suspect now that Yagami's been sort of cleared?"

"You could be. Maybe you're trying to get the rest of us off track with that shinigami obsession of yours."

Mulder smiled. "I'm telling you, Scully, I'm on the verge of a breakthrough with that."

"Right.  _ That _ 's why we had to lug all those boxes of books over here—not because you're still just reading everything shinigami-related at random."

The elevator arrived at its destination, and the two agents wheeled their belongings past the doors of a couple other task force members' suites before arriving at a nameplate bearing both of their aliases.

Mulder furrowed his brow. "He put us both in the same apartment?"

Scully shrugged. "We've lived together as long as he's known us. I'm sure there's plenty of room for both of us."

She slid her keycard through a slot and opened the door—immediately proving her assumptions correct in some ways, while incorrect in others.

She was right that there was plenty of room, especially compared to what they were used to. The living room itself was larger than the apartment they had just left. But she was wrong in imagining that this suite would have been designed with a pair of close friends and colleagues, temporarily sharing accommodations for convenience's sake, in mind.

Just like their old apartment, it was clear from an overview of the layout that there was only one bedroom.

Mulder was the first to comment. "I'll go ask L if there's another—"

"Really?" Scully interrupted. "It's the middle of the night. You want to be the one to interrupt L and Light right now?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean."

Scully watched with amusement as Mulder’s expression changed from one of slight confusion to one of dawning realization.

"You really think so?"

"Don't  _ you _ ?"

"Huh." He nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, I really don't want to know about that."

"We can talk to him tomorrow."

"Right. It's just one night, and we're already used to living together." Mulder pushed his cart of boxes into the room. "This couch looks pretty comfortable."

"You're not sleeping on the couch!" Scully protested, moving the rest of the boxes into the room and shutting the door behind her. "You've been sleeping on the floor for months. You take the bed."

"I'm not making  _ you _ sleep on the couch."

"Why not? Some misplaced sense of chivalry?"

"No!" Mulder threw his hands up in frustration. "I just want you to be comfortable."

"Well,  _ I _ want  _ you _ to be comfortable."

"Well, if you  _ insist _ , then maybe we should share the bed."

"Fine. Whatever."

Scully folded her arms. Mulder strode past her into the bedroom and flung himself face first onto one side of the double bed.

She followed him, taken aback. "You sleep in your clothes?"

He rolled over to face her and raised an eyebrow. "You'd rather I took them off?"

Scully rolled her eyes and shrugged wordlessly before heading back to the living room to unpack some essentials, such as more reasonable sleeping attire.

When she returned to the bedroom, she could tell from her partner's slow and even breathing that in spite of being fully dressed and contorted into an awkward position, he was sound asleep. She turned out the light and climbed tentatively into the opposite side.

It might have been easier if he was still awake, to ease the tension with his usual jokes at her expense. Then things would have felt a bit more normal—instead of the strange, uncomfortable intimacy of lying next to his vulnerable, sleeping frame.

At least it was only for one night. Tomorrow they could ask L to give one of them another room, and everything would go back to the way it was. Nothing would have to change.

For what felt like an eternity, she struggled to fall asleep, constantly distracted by the gentle current of his breath on her neck.

* * *

Over the next few months living at the new headquarters, both Mulder and Scully found themselves caught up in a series of bizarre events they could never have anticipated, set off by the task force's discovery of a potential connection between Kira and the executives of a company called the Yotsuba Corporation. The poorly planned actions of their overeager colleague, Touta Matsuda, threw the rest of the task force into a scramble to pull off a convincing fake death before Kira brought about a real one.

Even knowing that Mogi and Yagami were waiting to catch him on a mattress, Scully gasped as she watched Matusda "fall" off the balcony of Misa's suite. Hiding around a corner down below on the sidewalk, she caught her breath when she saw his silhouette disappear into a room below, and double-checked that Mulder was in position for his tour de force in the role of Matsuda's corpse.

It was hard to be sure in the dim light, but she thought he might have winked at her as he lay still on the concrete, waiting for a reaction from the members of the Yotsuba Group on the balcony.

He might have been having fun, but he had the easiest role. Scully's job was to pretend to be a bystander calling 911—and she had to emerge at the perfect moment, giving the witnesses enough time to see the "corpse" and confirm their beliefs that Matsuda had fallen, but not enough time to recover from the shock and call the real emergency services themselves. But once she made her move, there wasn't much else to worry about. She knew that with the help of her medical expertise, the fake paramedic team that the remaining task force members were playing would look convincing, and sure enough, the plan went off without a hitch. The man the Yotsuba Group members had known as "Taro Matsui" was dead to the world, and Kira—they hoped—was none the wiser. 

* * *

This chain of events did also give Scully an opportunity to take on a more entertaining role herself, as well as another alias—one that L passed on to her in order to further their investigation. It was a rare break from the task force's usual more tedious work to play the part of a suave private detective. Mulder handed her a glass of wine, insisting that it would help her get into character, as she put her feet up on her desk and dialed the phone number of one of the shady finance magnates on their suspect list.

"This is Masahiko Kida, vice president of rights and planning at Yotsuba, correct?" she asked, swirling the wine around in the glass like an aristocrat.

"Yes," a tentative voice on the other end responded. Mulder leaned in to listen. "And you are?"

"My name is Eraldo Coil," she claimed with the ease that comes with experience living under assumed names. There was a long pause on the other end of the line, and she stifled a chuckle, imagining the target's surprise and confusion at a casual phone call from someone he believed he had contacted anonymously. "Hello? I believe you hired me for a job."

"Of course, yes. You just sound— _ different _ than I expected," Mr. Kida stammered in response.   


"Really?" Scully raised an eyebrow in mock surprise, even though he couldn't see her. "I'd be interested to know what kind of expectations you had attached to such a unique name as my own. But for now, about the job—"

As she spoke, Mulder began scribbling down suggestions on scraps of paper. She smiled at him and took a sip of wine, glad that he was there to turn what could have been another nerve-wracking experience into a game.

* * *

Finally, their discoveries about the Yotsuba Group led to the task force's biggest scheme yet: they would reveal in a carefully calculated television drama that Matsuda was still alive, while watching Kira suspect Kyosuke Higuchi and waiting for him to reveal his method of killing.

The night before putting the plan into action, Mulder and Scully stood talking in the corridor outside their now-separate rooms.

"How long has it been now since we actually went out and tailed a suspect at all, let alone one who almost definitely has supernatural powers?" Mulder asked. "I don't know if I remember how these things work anymore. I'm a little nervous."

"I would have thought you'd be more excited," Scully replied. "If everything goes well, we're about to discover how those powers work. All your questions about shinigami might finally be answered."

"Yeah, but before that, we might have a car chase or something on our hands. Who knows what could happen out there?"

Scully smiled. "I'm not too worried. We'll be able to handle it."

"Well, even if  _ you're _ not worried, I'm worried about—"

The chime of an arriving elevator cut off Mulder's sentence, and the man of the hour, Touta Matsuda, stepped out. 

His face was pale as he shakily wished his two colleagues goodnight.

"Are you alright, Matsuda?" Scully asked.

"I—I'm alright," he responded, adopting a stoic expression that soon faded. "Well—not really. I'm scared. But I know I have to do it if we're going to catch Kira."

Scully nodded in approval. "We'll all be backing you up. Higuchi might try to kill you, but we'll make sure he doesn't succeed."

"Thank you, Agent Bryson."

"Don't forget your lines," Mulder added, earning Scully's elbow to the ribs as Matsuda disappeared around the corner.

"He's nervous enough already," she hissed.

"What? I'm just trying to lighten the mood."

Scully rolled her eyes and took a step down the hall toward her apartment. "Goodnight, Mulder."

"Goodnight, Scully."

With his hand on the doorknob of his room, he turned back.

"Scully?"

Scully stopped and whirled around to face him, letting the door she had already opened swing shut behind her. "Yes?"

Mulder looked into his partner's eyes, a smile on his face. "I kind of miss being roommates."

She blushed and shook her head. "I  _ don't _ miss tripping over the stacks of books you leave lying around everywhere."

"But you miss everything else?"

She turned away once more, concealing any further reactions from his view.

"Goodnight, Mulder," was all she said.


	6. Chapter 6

"Rem-san." L, dangling a packet of coffee creamer from each hand, addressed the skeletal figure hovering in front of him. "There are more notebooks in the human world, aren’t there?"

The shinigami shrugged. "Who knows? There might be and there might not be. The only notebook I'm required to watch over is—"

"What's the shinigami world like?" Mulder interjected, leaning closer to the spectre than any of the other task force members had dared.

Rem slowly turned her head toward him, a blank expression on her face. "Terrible. A human like you would hate it. Even the shinigami are miserable."

"But what's—"

"If there were other notebooks," L continued, raising his voice, "Would they all have the same rules?"

"Yeah, they're the same," Rem replied in a disinterested tone as she turned back to face the young detective. "There are tons of notebooks in the shinigami world, but the rules are all the same. And it's the same rules when a human uses it. There's no mistake."

"There are tons of notebooks?" Mulder asked, his eyes wide. "How many? What would happen if—"

"Ryuzaki, the suspicion against Light and Amane has been cleared," Aizawa insisted, cutting off Mulder's stream of questions again. "The surveillance of them should end."

Scully couldn't blame the other task force members for having little patience with Mulder's line of questioning. He was the only one of the group who seemed to have any energy. The rest of them were completely exhausted after spending the night in pursuit of Kyosuke Higuchi, who had died of a heart attack immediately after his arrest. At least they had managed to seize what appeared, against all odds, to be the source of Kira's power: a notebook labeled "Death Note," possessed by a being Scully couldn't deny was a shinigami, and inscribed with a series of rules that began, "The human whose name is written in this note shall die."

Most significantly, another one of the rules stated that once a human had written a name in the notebook, they would be forced to continue to do so indefinitely, or else face death themselves if they failed to write down another name within thirteen days. This rule seemed to free Light Yagami and Misa Amane from the suspicion that had hung over their heads for so long—if it was true, then they couldn't have used the Death Note prior to spending months in solitary confinement without it.

After announcing, in accordance with Aizawa's comment, that Misa would be allowed to leave headquarters, L dispersed the group for the night. Mulder, clearly disappointed that he would have to wait until the next day to continue interrogating the shinigami, gestured for Scully to follow him into his apartment.

"Something doesn't add up here," he said after locking the door behind them. "Don't you think it's a little convenient how that thirteen day rule exonerates Yagami and Amane so perfectly?"

Scully raised an eyebrow. "I never would have predicted that  _ you'd _ be the skeptical one. You think the shinigami is lying?"

"Why not? Shinigami may follow a series of complex rules, but I've never heard of any of those rules forbidding them from lying to humans." Mulder swept across the room and scooped a decrepit hardcover book from the top of one of many piles. "What I  _ have _ come across is more than one folk tale involving a shinigami tricking or manipulating someone into death."

"You think those stories are reliable evidence?"

"Scully." Mulder approached his partner and placed his other hand on her shoulder. "We've seen proof of the existence of shinigami with our own eyes. You really don't believe that other people in the past could have had the same experience?"

Scully smiled. "No, I think you could be right. I'm just—"

"What, testing me?"

"Something like that."

Mulder opened his mouth to respond, but a sudden knock at the door summoned him away.

In the hallway stood a disheveled-looking Touta Matsuda, nervously fidgeting with his tie.

"I'm not interrupting, am I?" he asked, glancing over at Scully.

"No. Come in." Mulder opened the door wider, allowing for Matsuda to enter before shutting it once more.

"I came to you because you've been investigating the shinigami more than anyone, and on your own terms, without L's direct involvement." Matsuda addressed Mulder while clearly struggling to maintain eye contact, frequently shifting his gaze to other targets such as Scully, the book in Mulder's hand, or his own shoes. "I thought you would be the best person to talk to about my doubts. He seems ready to trust Light Yagami now, but—"

Matsuda began to pace the room, almost wringing his hands in distress as his speech grew faster and more urgent.

"I'm not so sure. Maybe that thirteen day rule means he wasn't writing the names down in the notebook himself, but he could still be pulling the strings behind the scenes. And I'm worried about Misa Misa—about Miss Amane—if L sends her back out into the world without his protection. Who knows what Light—or whoever Kira is—could do to her when she's on her own?"

"You don't need to be so nervous, Matsuda," Scully reassured him, hoping to bring a stop to his frantic movements. "Mulder here has never heard a fringe theory he wasn't ready to drop everything to investigate."

"I wouldn't put it  _ that _ way," Mulder chuckled. "But she's right. In this case, I agree with you. Letting Amane go back to her normal life like nothing happened might not be safe—not for her  _ or _ for the rest of the world."

"Should we say something to L?" Matsuda asked, finally sinking into an armchair.

Scully shook her head. "Light Yagami is still the prime suspect in my mind, and he's L's right hand man. I say the three of us do our best to keep Amane under surveillance on our own."

"Okay," Matsuda agreed. "Let's come up with some excuses for why we need to be away from headquarters sometimes."

Mulder grinned at his partner. "I love it when you talk about defying authority, Scully."

* * *

While one shinigami remained more or less in L's custody, another perched on a tree branch in an isolated forest.

"I've finally returned to the human world."

"Ryuk!" Misa Amane exclaimed, flinging her arms around the creature's neck.

Seated on the dirt in the clearing where Light Yagami had buried his notebook, the young woman caught her macabre companion up to date on the events of her life. Most importantly, her memories of her time as the Second Kira had flooded back to her when she dug up the instrument of death, and she was overjoyed at the possibility of using it to help her beloved again—while at the same time, distraught that she was unable to follow the simple instructions he had given her in an accompanying letter. Although her shinigami eyes had shown her L's true name moments before her arrest, it was just one of countless names she had read every day, and she found that now she couldn't remember.

"You can't help that," Ryuk reassured her at the conclusion of her tale. "Even Light couldn't remember every single name he wrote in the Death Note."

"See?" Misa replied, exasperated with herself and her circumstances. "I'm just no good! I knew it."

What use was she to Light if she couldn't even kill his enemies for him? Looking down at the ground as if that could conceal her tears, she focused all her efforts on bringing the events surrounding her confinement as a Kira suspect to mind. Surely she would be able to remember  _ something _ that would make her useful. She picked up the notebook and flipped it open, hoping that touching the pages would help her recall.

There was  _ one _ name that came back to her. Not L's name, but that of someone else close to him who stood out in her memory. She considered writing it down, just to feel that she had done something of consequence.

No, that wouldn't work. It might just bring more suspicion on Light if one of L's colleagues died while L himself remained alive. There was nothing else to do. She'd have to sacrifice half of her remaining life again.

"Ryuk! Make the eye trade—"

But before she could finish her impassioned plea, she heard rapid footsteps, followed by a strangely familiar voice.

"Drop the notebook!"

She turned to face the sound, and there she was—flanked by two other task force members, the one person whose true name Misa remembered. She had been the only one who was kind to Misa during those terrifying days as L's prisoner, and now she was threatening her with a gun.

A gun? What was a gun in comparison to the greatest murder weapon in existence?

Misa smiled. She remembered it so clearly now—reading the woman's true name above her head as she introduced herself by an alias, and subsequently almost giving herself away. Misa also had a vague sense that there had been something unexpected about the woman's lifespan—but whatever it was, it didn't matter. Not now that Misa was the one in control of it.

Ignoring a throaty chuckle from Ryuk, Misa drew a pen from her pocket and shouted across the clearing. "No,  _ you _ drop  _ your _ weapon, Dana Scully!"

It was hard to tell from a distance, but Misa thought she could see the woman hesitate, looking to her companions for guidance.

"If you put your guns down, you can join me and be part of the new world Kira is creating!" She grinned widely, imagining the power she would have by Light's side in that world, as soon as she used these new pawns of hers to find L's name. "Or else I'll write all your names down right now! And I'm a pretty fast writer, you know! I've got plenty of practice! You can't kill me fast enough to save yourselves!"

"Misa, it doesn't have to be this way!" her old friend Matsuda cried out, stepping forward to Scully's side. "We can help you! You don't have to do what Kira tells you!"

Matsuda's grip on his weapon seemed to waver, but Scully stood stock still, her eyes trained on Misa.

"Fine!" Misa spat back, discarding all her previous sympathies toward the man who once acted as her manager. "If you don't support Kira, then you're all my enemies!"

Frantically, she put her pen to the paper of the notebook, scrawling down the name that Dana Scully had tried to hide. Ryuk, still seated next to her, began to laugh so uproariously that she wondered if even those fools on the other side of the clearing, who still couldn't see him, would be able to hear.

Then an even louder sound rang out, and the Death Note fell down into the dirt.

* * *

Matsuda sprang into action, crossing the forest clearing in a few bounds. Even clutching a bleeding hand, Misa Amane fought bitterly, shrieking threats and insults as he forced her wrists into handcuffs.

"Put some pressure on the wound!" Scully ordered, lowering her gun as she and Mulder approached the scene. "She'll need medical attention."

Matsuda did his best to follow Scully's instructions while the injured Amane continued to struggle and protest. "Should I take her back to L?"

Scully shook her head. "If you barge into headquarters with her like that, who knows what Light could do? And she needs to get to the hospital first. We can call L from there and—"

"Scully?" Mulder spoke for the first time, his voice wavering.

Scully turned around to find her partner staring down at the notebook on the ground—a notebook identical to the one they had seized from Kyosuke Higuchi. The whole task force had watched the security footage of Higuchi writing one of Matsuda's aliases in a notebook just like that, seemingly convinced that that act alone would bring about Matsuda's death. They had spent hours interrogating a creature the likes of which Scully had never anticipated she'd see in her lifetime—a shinigami who assured them that the notebook really was the weapon behind Kira's unending murder spree. As unbelievable as it sounded, Scully had to admit that all the evidence pointed to it being the truth.

And now, at the top of a blank page in the grime-covered notebook Misa had dug out of the ground, large and looping handwriting spelled out the name  _ Dana Scully _ .

Scully gasped for air as she read her death sentence. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Matsuda dragging Amane away, and she hoped that it was because he had understood the urgency of getting the young woman to the hospital, hoped that her injury wouldn't be too severe—and then she thought, what a ridiculous thing to worry about when I'm about to die, shouldn't I be worrying about myself? Or about—

Then the other person she was worried about wrapped his arms around her. She wasn't sure whether he was trying to comfort her or himself or both, but it didn't matter. She buried her face in his chest, wondering if his hand in her hair would be the last thing she felt, his rapidly beating heart the last thing she heard. And she thought about all the things she should have said to him much earlier, that she didn't have time for now.

Then a soft voice in her ear said, "Scully—it has to have been more than forty seconds by now."

"What?"

She pulled back slightly to face him, loosening her grip on his coat.

"She didn't write anything else next to your name—she didn't have time," Mulder explained, some of his usual confidence returning to his tone. "The rules say you should have died of a heart attack forty seconds later. But you're okay! She must have done something wrong somehow—misspelled it or something, and we didn't notice. Scully, you're not going to die."

Scully beamed at her partner, blinking back involuntary tears. "Well—of course," she stammered. "That would have been absurd. There's no way that you can kill someone by just writing their name down on a piece of paper."

She knew, of course, that this case was different than any of the others they had encountered in their years together. There really was undeniable evidence of the supernatural—she had seen it with her own eyes. It was almost impossible to argue, at this point, that the notebook didn't have some kind of power that was behind Kira's crimes, even if she doubted that the exact specifications of that power truly followed the so-called rules. But she also knew that she had a role to play in keeping her partner grounded—keeping his wild speculations from getting too out of hand. That balance was why they always worked together so well.

So when Mulder smiled at her and shook his head, she assumed that he was about to contradict her, to continue according to the dynamic their relationship had always had.

Instead, he kissed her, and changed that relationship forever.

* * *

Lying under the blanket in the same bed where they had spent just one night together months ago, Fox Mulder propped his chin up on his hand and watched as his partner gathered both of their discarded clothes from the floor.

"Scully," he said. "I want you to know that I've always loved you, almost since the day we met. I just never knew how to tell you. I didn't want to say anything that would jeopardize our partnership."

Scully blushed, still tidying up the room. "I think . . . I've probably felt the same way for a long time too. But I kept trying to rationalize it. Come up with alternative explanations for . . . why I cared so much."

"Of course. You were skeptical."

"I was. But I'm not anymore."

"Is this what finally convinced you?" Mulder asked, gesturing to the bed—or really, the whole room in general.

Scully smirked. "We can work on that."

Mulder's jaw dropped in exaggerated shock, but his eyes still betrayed his amusement. "What, I did something wrong?"

"I just have a few pointers. We can talk about it before next time."

"Well." Mulder raised his eyebrows. "I think next time could be . . . pretty soon, if you're interested. So tell me about it now."

He moved over in the bed to provide her with more space to rejoin him.

"My main question is," she began, climbing in next to him again, "Do you have to do everything so  _ gently _ ?"

"I was going for 'romantic.'"

"Well, you overdid it a bit. I'm not  _ that _ fragile." 

"You  _ did _ just almost die about an hour ago."

"And I've clearly recovered!"

" _ Clearly _ ."

"So you don't need to be afraid of being a bit more—exactly! That's much better already." 

* * *

"Agent Scully?" L's voice greeted her on the telephone a few days later. The call had interrupted her preparing to move once more, and her room in the headquarters of the recently dissolved task force was full of half-packed boxes.

"We're using real names now?" she replied.

"Why not? Yours can't put you at any further risk from the notebook anymore."

"It doesn't seem fair, when I still don't know yours."

L ignored her last remark, as per usual. "So Dana Scully  _ is  _ your real name? It's not another alias?"

Scully shrugged. "I can't claim to be certain about what the mysterious powers behind the notebook consider a 'real name,' but I can't see any reason why mine wouldn't count. Dana Scully has been my name my whole life."

"Interesting."

L paused—whether for thought or for dramatic emphasis, Scully wasn't sure. She checked her watch, wondering how long this call would take before she could get back to the task at hand.

Eventually, he continued. "The rest of the names in the notebook confiscated from Misa Amane match with criminals who had been killed by Kira prior to Light Yagami's confinement. It appears to be one of two almost identical notebooks he used as Kira, but somehow, you survived. Could he have prepared a fake notebook in advance? Had he planned so far ahead that he predicted what happened to Misa?"

"I don't know," Scully sighed, ready to put this case behind her. "Maybe just writing a name in the notebook doesn't kill someone after all. Maybe there's another step to it. The important thing is that everything points toward Light Yagami being the mastermind behind all the Kira killings, right? And he's in police custody, with no access to the notebooks or any of his previous accomplices. Do the exact details of how he did it matter right now?"

"But they're only holding him based on our testimony," L argued. "We'll need more evidence to convict him. I'll have to experiment with the notebooks further."

"You mean, try to use them to kill someone?"

"A criminal who's already been sentenced to death, yes."

"Well, let me know how that goes."

Under different circumstances, she might have been ready to enter a debate about L's methods. But her part in the case was over, and she was looking forward to finally returning home with her partner. It wasn't her problem anymore, and she was happy to hang up the phone and get back to packing.

She would be interested, of course, to learn about how L's experiments went. But whatever happened, she was sure they would uncover a rational explanation for why Misa's notebook hadn't worked the way that the shinigami said it would.

But in the back of her mind, something told her that the real reason had nothing to do with the notebook or the shinigami. It was something different about Scully herself—something that she had thought was a joke the first time she heard it, but that she had recently been starting to believe. The scene that kept replaying in her head was the conversation she once had in a hotel room with an old man who had claimed he could see the future.

"How do I die?" she had asked him flippantly, never predicting the answer that would come back to haunt her years later.

All he had said was, "You don't."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end! I had a great time writing this. Thanks so much for reading.


End file.
